Dream it loud! Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth ______

Report of the study session held by Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe

in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe

European Youth Centre Strasbourg 22‐29 May 2016

This report gives an account of various aspects of the study session. It has been produced by and is the responsibility of the educational team of the study session. It does not represent the official point of view of the Council of Europe.

DDCP‐YD (2016) 197 Strasbourg, November 2016

1

Dream it loud! Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth ______

Report of the study session held by Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe

in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe

European Youth Centre Strasbourg 22‐29 May 2016

Team: Mirela Lupu, Simone Lucchi, Kätlin Merisalu, Nemanja Tenjovic, Jenni Heinonen, Karina Chupina Reporter: Jenni Heinonen Participants’ report committee: Jonathan De Lijster, Emmeline Kuhn, Siobhan Gallagher and Monika Holzl

Youth Express Network +33 3 88 35 3745 y‐e‐[email protected] www.youthexpressnetwork.org

Rural Youth Europe +358 4523 45629 [email protected] www.ruralyoutheurope.com

2 Table of Contents

Executive summary ...... 4 1. Background of the session ...... 7 2. Aim and objectives ...... 9 3. Preparation team ...... 9 4. Participant profiles ...... 10 5. Programme flow ...... 10 6. Working methods ...... 11 7. Lecturers and experts ...... 12 8. Main results ...... 13 9. Main learning points ...... 16 10. Evaluation ...... 16 11. Expected impact and follow‐up ...... 17 12. Contribution to the organisations’ development ...... 18 Appendices ‐ I. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS ...... 20 II. Programme of the study session "Dream It Loud"…………………………………...... 18

3 Executive summary

This report is based on the information shared and discussed during the “Dream it Loud! – Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth” study session in Strasbourg in May 2016. This was a joint study session between Youth Express Network (Y‐E‐N) and Rural Youth Europe, organised in co‐operation with the European Youth Centre of the Council of Europe. The aim of this study session was to promote an inclusive society by facilitating access to social rights of young people coming from urban and rural areas. The study session had 38 participants from 21 countries.

The participants learned about what social rights are, how to advocate for social rights, what kind of tools and mechanisms are available for this. The group reflected on the connections between social inclusion and access to social rights. The study session was based on the human rights‐based approach and informed by such European practices and policies in the field of access to social rights, as the Enter! project, the European Social Charter, the Enter! Recommendation, and others.

The Enter! project, presented at the study session, promotes young people's access to social rights as a means for their inclusion and participation in society; and the Enter! Recommendation, a policy recommendation adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for its member states, was used as a platform to discuss access to social rights and to connect the concrete measures outlined in the Recommendation, to the participants’ local realities.

The European Social Charter is a Council of Europe treaty that guarantees a broad range of everyday human rights related to employment, housing, health, education, social protection and welfare. Discussion on the Charter and which rights are denied to young people in our countries initiated good discussions, sharing of the local realities and comparing situations between countries as well as between rural and urban perspectives.

The participants found out that there are big differences within Europe regarding social rights and opened their eyes to the fact that even the countries that seem to be doing relatively well regarding social rights have a lot to improve. The participants’ attitudes changed so that they are now equipped with a better ability to see and recognise different forms of social exclusion and point out when the social rights of young people are being violated in their own local realities.

Various non‐formal educational methods were applied over the week and the preparatory team found out that sometimes the simplest method of discussion in

4 small groups worked the best. The participants learned a lot when sharing and comparing realities.

One of the main learning points for the team and participants was that we need to be more concrete when we want to improve access to social rights and social inclusion: not only to learn about what we can use when we want to claim our rights, but also to find practical and concrete solutions that will work in our communities. The participants learnt to recognise social rights as human rights and to recognise social rights through the needs of young people.

Competence building workshops were held in human rights education, advocacy, leadership and teamwork skills. The aim was to support the participants to have the skills to promote social inclusion and to take the knowledge gained into practice at the local level.

In general, as a result of the learning process we can identify several learning outcomes that have been developed at different levels, both individually and as a group. As mentioned above, the participants got to know what social rights actually are and what it means to acknowledge them as part of the human rights system. They also gained knowledge about European tools and strategies (such as the Enter! Recommendation and the European Social Charter) and became familiar with examples and good practices in the implementation of such tools (through panels of experiences, visits, etc.). Moreover ‐ in terms of awareness raising ‐ not only did the participants become more aware of the existence of the socio‐political framework of social rights, but they also understood better the direct and indirect implications of having such rights respected and fulfilled. In this sense, presenting the rights‐based approach as a frame of reference helped the group understand the different dimensions involved (rights‐holders, duty‐bearers, the role of the civil society, etc.) and better define their own action plans. In terms of awareness, it’s also worth mentioning the attention and the appreciation with which the participants explored the differences (and the similarities) between the rural and the urban contexts, as well as the way they were able to recognise and express discrimination that young people face on daily basis in either area. At an attitudinal level, it is fair to mention the personal commitment towards social change and the motivation showed to have a say in and offer practical solutions to the situation of social exclusion of young people.

5 From a practical point of view, apart from the theoretical background about human rights education and European recommendations, the participants gained practical skills in advocacy, team‐work, leadership and facilitation through a learning‐by‐doing approach. Likewise, they learnt how to organise and devise their actions by shaping a first draft of their personal action plan. Finally, when talking about the results of this study session, it’s also important to mention the personal and professional network created among participants coming from very different areas and social contexts. Although it is difficult to foresee the impact that such relationships might have in the long run, we highly value the potential and the relevance of this networking.

Furthermore, some of the concrete outputs of this study session were four videos addressing the recognition of non‐formal education to promote young people’s employability, the value of sport and leisure‐time activities as an opportunity to foster social cohesion and well‐being, the commitment of young people to improve the conditions of their neighbourhoods and, finally, the vision of the world where social rights and social inclusion are a reality. A forum theatre session methodology on counteracting bullying at schools and the draft of a questionnaire on the access to social rights for HIV‐positive persons were also designed and created by the participants. All these tools will be used by the participants and the organisations to promote social rights and social inclusion and to disseminate the learning results of the study session.

With regard to the contribution to the organisations’ development the results of the study session have positively contributed to the work of both of the networks involved. As for Youth Express Network, gaining knowledge about the Enter! Recommendation and the European Social Charter, becoming familiar with the rights‐based approach and working on advocacy perfectly match with the work‐plan envisaged for the upcoming months, focusing on claiming access to social rights for young people with fewer opportunities. Besides, the seminar itself was an opportunity to bring young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to an international activity and create a safe space where to express their views and opinions. Likewise, for Rural Youth Europe, this meeting contributed to identifying the need for fostering dialogue around the topic of social inclusion and setting good examples for building more inclusive organisations and activities for rural youth. In this sense, as a result of the experience gained through this study session, RYEurope can now represent a source of inspiration and information on social Inclusion for their member organisations.

6 Finally, for both networks, “Dream It Loud!” represented a valuable chance to bring together members of Y‐E‐N and Rural Youth Europe and plan possible cooperation in the future.

1. Background of the session

Our fast developing society offers a wide range of opportunities. Nevertheless, youth have limited access to resources, healthcare, education, housing, employment and decision‐making processes. The tempo is high and the culture increasingly individualistic, so young people without safe networks are at risk to be marginalised and tend to play a passive role in their communities. This context has a negative impact in young people’s quality of life, autonomy and levels of social inclusion.

We have observed that even if social rights and social inclusion of youth are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms or the European Social Charter, young people don’t know these legal documents well enough to be able to defend their rights. As a consequence, young people are ignoring their own rights and the rights of others, with the high risk that they turn to discriminate and be discriminated.

The purpose of the “Dream it loud! Build an inclusive society for urban and rural youth” study session was to address these issues and equip youth leaders and young people with tools to enable them to improve their lives and contribute to an inclusive society.

In 2013, Y‐E‐N and RYEurope run a study session together on coaching of young people (“Coaching for Inclusion: closing the gap between urban and rural youth”). It was an enriching project for both organisations and we wanted to deepen this cooperation. We wanted to keep working on the urban/rural youth perspectives and had the opportunity to reach different countries thanks to the diversity of represented countries in both organisations.

Youth Express Network Youth Express Network / Réseau Express Jeunes (Y‐E‐N / R‐E‐J) is a European network of grass‐root youth organisations and social initiatives. Our vision is to reach an inclusive society for young people. Y‐E‐N / R‐E‐J considers that an inclusive society is a society where young people, their needs and participation is recognised, valued and appreciated. Our 27 member organisations in 21 different countries all work at the local, regional or European level on social inclusion of young people.

Since 1993, Y‐E‐N has organised more than 90 international youth projects, training

7 courses, seminars, cross‐border and mobility projects bringing together social workers, youth workers and young people with fewer opportunities to engage in social inclusion. Y‐E‐N also has done researches and studies on youth and social related issues and the network try to be the voice of young people with fewer opportunities in local, regional and international institutions, either by representing them or by supporting them to create and be part of youth councils and local youth policies. Y‐E‐N is the member of the and the Conference of International Non‐Governmental Organisations (INGOs) of the Council of Europe. In 2014 Y‐E‐N conducted a long‐term project on “Social Inclusion of Young people” (a Work Plan granted by the EYF) and a special project on access to social rights (“Social Rights are Human Rights II (too)”) in the frame of the activities of the Youth Department of the Council of Europe. As a result of (mainly) these two activities, Y‐E‐ N launched in November 2014 the campaign “Inclusion Express” aiming at informing young people about their social rights and at supporting youth/social workers to defend these rights and advocate for inclusive youth policies in Europe.

Y‐E‐N General Assembly in June 2014 adopted a strategic vision for the next 5 years that planned the year 2015 for Y‐E‐N as a year of campaigning for social inclusion and access to social rights for young people in Europe. For 2016, we want to share our expertise – meaning the results of the concrete action of the campaign – with other young people coming from places and backgrounds that we weren’t able to reach in 2015 and give a bigger scope to this campaign.

Rural Youth Europe RYEurope is an activity based and membership led organisation, uniting rural youth NGOs across Europe to promote rural development, agriculture and the environment, strengthen rural youth participation and raise awareness of human rights and intercultural diversity in rural areas. Our members are 21 rural youth, young farmers and 4H organisation in 18 European countries. The organisation is led by young people and for young people.

RYEurope has 3‐4 annual activities bound together by annual themes. Lately, we worked on entrepreneurship and development of the rural communities, as these are especially relevant for rural youth in times of global financial crisis. A majority of our own events are skills development activities, while Council of Europe study sessions are opportunities to deepen understanding of the annual theme in the European perspective. We have worked on social inclusion issues before, latest in 2013 together with Y‐E‐N, but a need to develop further competences on this area. Strong traditions and lack of tolerance in rural communities threaten access to rights of people who diverge from the majority.

8 The annual themes are selected based on young people´s needs, which are communicated by our member organisations. As a reaction to recent challenging employment situation in rural areas, our members proposed to work in 2016 on rural youth´s wellbeing in the format of strengthening self‐esteem, support autonomy and help to cope with changing society. In this context it fits very well to work with Y‐E‐N on access to social rights, as these rights are the foundation for young people´s wellbeing and possibility to improve their surroundings.

2. Aim and objectives The aim of this study session was to promote an inclusive society by facilitating the access to social rights of young people coming from urban and rural areas.

The objectives of the study session were: 1. To identify and share challenges in the process of social inclusion and young people’s access to social rights in European urban and rural communities.

2. To share experiences, examples of good practices and existing mechanisms of social inclusion in young people’s local realities (rural and urban areas).

3. To explore the European tools and policies for access to social rights (European Social Charter, ENTER! Recommendation, No Hate Speech Movement), and how they can be applied locally to promote the access to social rights.

4. To increase participants’ capacity to advocate for improved access to social rights.

5. To provide participants with an opportunity to create concrete tools supporting young people’s access to social rights that can be adjusted to their local realities to improve inclusion of youth in urban and rural contexts.

6. To explore possibilities of future partnerships between Y‐E‐ N and RYEurope member organisations.

3. Preparation team The preparatory team included: Mirela Lupu, Course director Youth Express Network, Romania; President of Youth Express Network, Simone Lucchi, Youth Express Network, Spain, member of the Pool of Human Resources of Y‐E‐N, Nemanja Tenjovic, Youth Express Network, Serbia, member of the Pool of Human Resources of Y‐E‐N, Jenni Heinonen, Rural Youth Europe, , Secretary‐General of Rural Youth Europe, Kätlin Merisalu, Rural Youth Europe, , board member of Rural Youth Europe and Karina Chupina, the external educational advisor appointed by

9 Council of Europe (Russia‐).

4. Participant profiles We invited youth workers and leaders (staff or volunteers) mainly in the age 18 to 30 who are working in the field of social rights and/or have specific interest to learn about it. The study session had 38 participants (including the team) from 21 countries. The average age of the participants was 24. We invited young people who can apply in their community the learning outcome and be a multiplier in their organisation and locality. Applicants from Y‐E‐N and RYEurope member organisations were prioritised as we considered participation in this study session to be a way to invest in the capacity building of our member organisations.

Y‐E‐N and RYEurope reach together a larger geographical area in Europe and had participants from most of our member organisations. We reached a good balance between urban and rural participants, as Y‐E‐N is mostly active in urban areas and RYEurope in rural areas.

5. Programme flow The red thread of this programme was the promotion of an inclusive society. We wanted to provide a space for the participants where they would be able to ‐ gain knowledge about social rights, the obstacles young people from disadvantaged

10 areas have to face, the current situations of discrimination in different European countries, but also examples of social Inclusion, by sharing their experiences with each other, by attending input presentations and also by visiting local initiatives in Strasbourg; ‐ improve skills in advocacy, workshop‐facilitation, team work, documenting and planning, by experiencing new working methods and learning about new educational tools; ‐ challenge their preconceptions about intercultural barriers, differences between rural and urban contexts and situations of discrimination in Europe as well as about the role and potential of young people and youth organizations, through taking part in an intercultural working environment.

The programme is enclosed in an appendix.

6. Working methods

We facilitated the study session with a variety of non‐formal methods to meet different ways of learning by participants. Several theoretical inputs were provided, especially about relevant Council of Europe documents and projects on access to social rights. Most sessions were facilitated with the aim to give space for participants to share their realities of social inclusion / exclusion, explore different perspectives on the key theme of the study session and create a learning package for themselves to make the most effective use of the study session results in their home setting.

The decision in the beginning was not to address / divide perspectives into urban and rural explicitly as a general approach (apart from some small group work). Therefore some rural participants felt that the rural perspective was not always addressed as much as urban. On the other hand, presenting rural realities as special setting and keeping urban realities as the default setting would not be correct either.

The participant‐centred learning approach and intense interaction supported intercultural learning among participants. They experienced differences and similarities through cooperating and exploring the theme, and they were encouraged to overcome personal and cultural barriers to reach common results. The entire programme process was informed by the urban and rural perspectives, which, in addition, gave a new perspective to intercultural learning. The participants did daily small reflection groups to keep track of and follow up their learning process and to give feedback to the team.

Field visits in Strasbourg – Social rights in action

11 The main objectives of the field visits were: ‐ To provide participants with an opportunity to better understand the challenges facing many young people. ‐ To gain a first‐hand understanding of social work at the local level. ‐ To demonstrate concrete examples of how the access to social rights is promoted through different actions and initiatives.

The organisations/centres visited: La Station is a place for encounters to support the LGBTI community and is open to the entire region. The main tasks of the Station are to welcome, inform and listen to LGBTI and non‐LGBTI people. Furthermore, La Station fights against discrimination towards LGBTI people and promotes equal rights.

Libre Objet welcomes people with “contracts of assistance” who are undergoing a process of social rehabilitation. They realise small series of objects designed by artists. Such objects are manufactured directly in their workshops. Through participation in communication and marketing events they gain positive recognition, allowing to build up their soft skills and self‐confidence.

Les Jardins de la Montagne Verte’s aim is to help people who have been unfortunate in life to get back on track by participating in a rehabilitation course, where participants have a chance to learn how to work again and reintegrate into society. The main activities are the production and sale of vegetables and their processing.

Maison des Adolescents: Young people can encounter many difficulties in their daily lives and their parents do not always know how to respond to their discomfort. In Maison des Adolescents (House of Adolescents), professionals discuss and provide support on social, psychological, relational, legal, health and professional aspects of daily life.

7. Lecturers and experts

Two experts were invited: Chris Schuepp – video expert. His role was to inspire participants to use video tools when wanting to send a message and to support the creation of short videos together with the groups of participants who wanted to create one. Schuepp gave an input on using imagery in advocacy or campaign messages on social inclusion, and demonstrated several examples of short advocacy and campaign videos He supported several groups of participants in creating four videos in a short amount of

12 time. This was an example on how good quality campaign materials can be produced with little time and resources.

Biljana Vasilevska Trajkoska – part of Enter! project and working at local level on improving access to social rights. The session provided participants with an example of Biljana’s work on social rights at local level. A presentation of the Enter! project was made briefly. Biljana structured her presentation into the following main chapters: ‐ What her experience on promoting access to social rights was at local level (examples, case studies and best practices) ‐ What the Enter! project is (how she ended up taking part, how it contributed to her work at local level, what the results of Enter! have been and how the participants can use such outcomes in their work).

8. Main results The main issues discussed were access to social rights for young people coming from rural and urban areas, social inclusion of young people and sharing good practices on the topic, European tools and mechanisms for improving access to social rights, human rights education and advocacy for rights and the Enter! Recommendation.

The results of the study session include four videos, a training methodology and a survey on promoting access to social rights of young people in rural and urban areas.

13 Videos: Build your future is about how non‐formal education can be used to promote young people’s employability. Dream Neighbourhood – encourages young people to design a neighbourhood they’d like to live in. Get active –encourages young people to become more active, do sports, get together for more active free time – and by doing this, feel included through sports. I have a dream – study session participants share their dreams of a world where social rights and social inclusion are a reality.

The videos can be found on both Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe Youtube channels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06Bcni_yRV8&list=PL3B7JOEYE1QB9uiA7Xpe8_ ndnJ7GQfGXZ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBdKg6_wKJz1RJj7xmyBcAw

Other tools:

Forum theatre methodology on counteracting bullying for primary schools https://prezi.com/fekaggrs9lsn/a‐tool‐for‐handling‐bullying‐in‐primary‐ schools/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

A survey for HIV positive persons on their access to social rights The European Social Charter and the Enter! Recommendation were used to create this tool. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe8Z7KdIxPzUNiadElnoWMisdmOOZYt AnnZocTHk_N‐zjtgfQ/viewform?c=0&w=1

Participants in this activity found out what social rights are and what tools they can use to claim their rights. For a part of the participants it was the first time dealing with this topic. In their evaluations many of them said that they are keen on bringing back the knowledge to their local organisation and start working on social inclusion and improving access to social rights for young people using digital tools. One of the most important outcomes of this study session is also the cooperation between Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe. Youth Express Network has experience in social inclusion of young people and access to social rights that was transferred to participants and the other partner, and Rural Youth Europe has the rural perspective that was brought to the study session.

The Enter! Recommendation was presented and analysed as well as used by the

14 group of participants to identify specific actions for the six key fields; education and training, housing, employment, health, information and counselling, sports, leisure and culture. Moreover, the videos developed by the participants will be used by both organisations to promote Enter! Recommendation and access to social rights for young people. The topic was discussed from two points of view, rural and urban, participants having the opportunity to share what is the situation of access to social rights in their communities.

There was an article published on the website of Youth Express Network, a testimony of one of the participants of the study session: http://www.youthexpressnetwork.org/dream‐it‐loud‐study‐session/ Also, an article on the study session was published in Rural Youth Europe’s magazine Rural Voices 2/2016: https://issuu.com/ryeurope/docs/magazine_2_2016?e=12735566/39506916 Laila Gamst, one of the participants wrote an entry for Rural Youth Europe’s blog: http://www.ruralyoutheurope.com/single‐post/2016/06/20/Dreaming‐it‐loud‐in‐ Strasbourg The outcomes of the study session and recommendations for the member organisations will be included in a Rural Youth Europe “inclusion booklet” created as a result of RYEurope’s 2016 activities. This will be published on an e‐platform in 2017.

Most participants included using the tools in their action plans and all of them wanted to share the videos when they’re ready. The participants want to use the skills they learned in video making, for instance, in order to make informative videos about infrastructure and counselling.

Some of the action plans had a more personal dimension and answered the question: “what have I learned that I can use to improve the life of people around me?”. Participants were reflecting on how to fight against discrimination and stereotyping in their personal lives. Many participants had plans to use what they learned professionally and the study session has also given ideas on how to develop their skills in human rights education and social inclusion further. For instance one of the teams wanted to learn more about forum theatre and how it can be applied for human rights education.

Many participants wanted to take a social rights and human rights perspective to their local club/camp activities. For instance, a plan was created to implement Human Rights Education in volunteer work with young people with fewer opportunities. They also wanted to share their ideas with their home organisation and colleagues in order to have a clear human rights and social rights perspective of

15 their work. One idea was to organise a “No Hate Speech” flashmob with another local organisation, and this is something that can be multiplied by other organisations.

9. Main learning points

Since the group of participants was so diverse (we had participants taking part for the first time in a mobility project outside their country, participants who were experienced in the topic, and participants who had their first contact with the topic), the learning points were diverse as well. Some of the participants learned a lot about social rights (what the social rights are), how to advocate for social rights, and that social rights are human rights. Another learning point for some participants was to get out of their comfort zone, work in a team and to trust people they never met before. One of the main learning points is that we need to be more concrete when we want to improve access to social rights and social inclusion: to not only learn about what we can use when we want to claim our rights, but also to find practical and concrete solutions that work in our communities.

Some participants felt it had been a challenging topic but during the week they had picked up the courage to contribute and take part instead of being an observer. Many had also gained confidence to speak in public in English. They had also gained confidence to put their knowledge and skills into practice. The week had given them new perspectives and they had realised that social inclusion is an issue that touches everyone. Some were inspired to use what they’ve learned, in developing a new project proposal.

It had been an important lesson for everyone (preparatory team and participants) to realise that even when we are learning about social inclusion, it has been a challenge to be fully inclusive in all of our activities at the study session. There were situations where not every participant felt included due to more physically challenging activities. The exclusion went unnoticed by most until it was pointed out. This made us realise that it requires a lot of sensitivity and awareness to see what is happening in a group in order to make it an inclusive one.

10. Evaluation

The team conducted an evaluation session together with the participants at the end of the study session and introduced daily reflection groups facilitated by each member of the team, in the programme. A session of evaluation for the team was

16 also held one day after the end of the study session. The participants’ evaluation session included a group activity to assess some elements of the programme and continued with filling in an individual evaluation form by each participant. The main results of the evaluation session were the following: ‐ in terms of learning outcomes, learning about social rights, human rights, advocacy skills, ENTER! Recommendation, European Social Charter; ‐ the need to go deeper in the topic; ‐ bringing more awareness on discrimination; ‐ bringing more awareness to the differences in access to social rights in different regions in Europe; ‐ the need to focus more on the local realities and how to apply the Enter! Recommendation in that context; ‐ learning how to use and create digital tools; ‐ finding out more about the two networks involved; ‐ there was a need to focus more on the rural perspective.

11. Expected impact and follow‐up

Youth Express Network and Rural Youth Europe want to use the tools created by the participants to promote social inclusion and access to social rights in our future activities. Youth Express Network will continue working on the topic of social inclusion and access to social rights for young people by using digital tools like video making and photography for digital storytelling. An activity was organised in September 2016 on this topic. As a follow‐up of this study session, we plan to start working together with local authorities from communities where our member organizations are based – in order to make them aware of the need to improve access to social rights and bring them together with young people working on this topic. We plan to start involving more stakeholders at local and national level with the aim to make them aware of ENTER! Recommendation and to learn how to implement its measures more concretely. Y‐E‐N will keep empowering young people with disadvantaged backgrounds to claim for their rights. As a follow‐up, Y‐E‐N will organize an Inclusion Express Week dedicated to local actions on access to social rights and social inclusion of young people, in 2016.

Rural Youth Europe is putting together materials that can support our member organisations in becoming more inclusive. Many of our member organisations have not been actively promoting social inclusion or access to social rights in their activities or at the clubs on a local level. All of our 2016 activities’ output, including the study session, will be contributed towards a booklet with practical suggestions and ideas on how to become more inclusive; and will incorporate inclusiveness as part of the daily work of youth organisations. This will be published on an e‐platform

17 in 2017, where Rural Youth Europe starts building a source of information and inspiration for our member organisations, club leaders and others interested.

Participants from this study session will be involved in the follow‐up activities planned: in Youth Express Network we want to encourage them to take different positions within the network, for them to start organizing local activities on the topic and to take part in Youth Express Network Pool of Human Resources were they can be facilitators or rapporteurs for our future activities. Participants from the study session will be invited and supported to organize local activities in the Inclusion Express Week.

The participants will be asked to contribute to the “inclusion booklet” that Rural Youth Europe is creating. They will be able to use the videos created for raising awareness on social inclusion and to share them online. Also, they are encouraged to take action in their local organisations to raise awareness and create practices that promote inclusion at clubs and activities on a local level. At the end of the year RYEurope will be in touch with the organisations that had participants at the study session and our RYEurope’s other inclusion related events, in order to conduct impact evaluation and see if there have been changes and if awareness had been brought to national/local level by the participants.

12. Contribution to the organisations’ development

18 Youth Express Network:

Y‐E‐N’s vision for 2020 is an inclusive society for all young people. In order to achieve that, Y‐E‐N has different objectives every year. In 2015 we campaigned all over Europe for social inclusion and access to social rights for young people and in 2016 we want to share our expertise and results of the campaign with other people and organizations coming from different backgrounds and working on different topics. In 2016 we also want to support young people with fewer opportunities in changing the perception of themselves. This study session contributed to our long‐term and short‐term objectives, firstly because we continued our cooperation with Rural Youth Europe and we reached young people coming from rural areas who we usually don’t have in our activities. Secondly, the activity contributed to dissemination of the results of our campaign to more corners of Europe and to bring together members or Y‐E‐N and Rural Youth Europe for possible cooperation in the future. Lastly, the study session contributed to our objective of bringing young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to an international activity where usually they cannot afford to participate and where we created a space to express their views and feelings about the topic.

Rural Youth Europe:

Rural Youth Europe has identified a need to build more dialogue on the topic of social inclusion and act as a good example for building more inclusive organisations and activities for rural youth. With our network of organisations it is essential that the examples of more inclusive practices and discussions on youth social rights are on a very practical level and can easily be applied to local rural realities. Rural Youth Europe is currently doing strategic work and creating organisational values. Social inclusion is something we want to raise awareness of and promote in all of our future activities. Also, as a result of the study session and other inclusion‐related activities in 2016 we are seeing RYEurope now even more as a source of inspiration and information for our member organisations and plan to create a web‐based platform for better dissemination of the outcomes of our events.

19 Appendices ‐ I. LIST OF PARTICIPANTS

GJOKA LORENC Albania GRIGORYAN ARMAN HARUTYUNYAN MARTIN Armenia GUGGANIG VIKTOR HOLZL MONIKA Austria TRAUNER KARINA Austria SHARIFZADE CHINARA Azerbaijan ALIZADA JEYHUN Azerbaijan

ARTSIUKH OLGA Belarus SABANOVIC HARUN Serbia LAAS RAILI Estonia IVANOVA BRIGITA Estonia HONKANEN SOFIA Finland YLINAMPA VILHELMIINA Finland

SUOMAKI SANDRA Finland KUHN EMMELINE France DEWEER VANESSA France KAPANADZE ELENE Georgia GALLAGHER SIOBHAN MOONEY NIAMH Ireland

CIOCOTOIU ROBERT Romania MASSONE VALENTINA MALIQI FATZGONA Kosovo1 HOLM ANDERSSEN MERETE GAMST LAILA Norway GRASSI MARTINA Italy

DUDILA IOANA MARIA Romania KURTSEVA DARIA Russia MILAN LOPEZ JAVIER Spain

DE LIJSTER JONATHAN The UGURLU ELVAN MERT Turkey PUGH‐DAVIES LOWRI UK () DAFYDD ELLIW UK (Wales)

MERISALU KÄTLIN Estonia HEINONEN JENNI Finland

TENJOVIC NEMANJA Serbia/Germany LUCCHI SIMONE Spain/Italy LUPU MIRELA Romania CHUPINA KARINA Germany/Russia

1 All references to Kosovo, whether the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nation's Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo.

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